Consumers vs. Producers

My wife and I have noticed a trend with our two youngs boys, ages 7 and 4, when compared to us growing up.  On weekend mornings, especially saturday, my wife and I can remember rushing downstairs to watch the great lineup of saturday morning cartoons.  My boys however, rush to the macbooks, iPods and iPad.   They play games, make music (or at least try very hard), put on concerts with the iPod blaring Queen or AC/DC.  All of this while we  are trying to enjoy a quiet morning coffee.  My wife just doesn't understand it.  Having read Don Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital I think I do, at least a little.

In his book he talks about the Net Generation and their much different relationship to media, due in large part to the ubiquitous nature of the internet and technology.  Previous  generations had a much more passive/receptive relationship with the limited media of the day.  We sat on the couch and watch TV, listened to the radio or read what was written in the newspapers/magazines.  Other than the occasional letter to the editor, the mass population had no way of actively participating in the creation of media.  We could only sit passively and receive the media message from on high.

Flash forward to the past decade and the explosion of the Web 2.0 and the masses now have a means by which they can create media.  Think of Youtube, Wikipedia, blogs, podcasts, twitter, social networks, etc...  There has been a monumental shift in the way we interact with the media.  We are no longer passive when it comes to media, we actively create it and share it.  For many this has been a very uncomfortable shift, mistrust and disdain are often symptoms of this discomfort.  Our youth, however, find this new relationship with media to be completely natural, like breathing.  The technology is no longer a barrier to media production, but is often an enabler.  Most video editing software includes a button that allows you to upload to Youtube, or share on Facebook and Twitter.

So the issue with my boys is not that they are spending less time with their media than we did, but spending their time differently.  We would sit and enjoy the show, for my boys they are the show.

This is what I believe to be the fundamental element in the effective use of technology in the classroom. We as teachers need to understand our students' relationship to media, not only as consumers but as producers, and turn that to our advantage instead of fighting against it.  We need to understand that in this we are not necessarily the experts.  This might be frightening for some, and just like in the media industry there will be mistrust and disdain, but the potential for meaningful discussions with our students about the process of learning is the key.  Since we no longer control the creative process that can be used  in learning activities, we can instead focus our efforts towards helping the students evaluate, analyze and synthesize their learning.  That is higher order thinking and that is the 'holy-grail' of education.